Pearls in North
Motivating elderly in elderly homes to change their activity behaviour
Information
Author: Siemerink, P.
Contributor: Sonneveld, M., Anderiesen, H.
Faculty: Industrial Design Engineering
Department: Industrial Design
Programme: Design For Interaction
Type: Master thesis
Date: 30-6-2011
Keywords: Elderly | Activity Behaviour | Activate | Motivate | Context Research | Service Design | Elderly Homes
Abstract
This thesis describes the design process of a service, Pearls in North, for elderly who live in Humanitas. The goal of the project was to design a product or a service that makes elderly physically more active so they feel good, stay healthy and independent.
When people become older they tend to become more passive. Especially when people move from their independent lifestyle to elderly homes. This behavior is a significant problem because it worsens the physical decline and makes them more dependent on the care system than they would be if they were more active. Being passive is both the cause and the consequence of physical decline. The challenge is to break this negative spiral and motivate them to start being active.
The main focus for this project was on the pleasure that physical activity can provide. Being active should be intrinsically pleasant to do. When you move your body, you feel your body; you feel the muscles, the skin, and the bones. Feeling your body means feeling that you are: the feeling that you live.
Research was done to understand how elderly experience physical activity and what pleasures they have when being physically active. It was found that elderly do not perceive physical activity as very important. Elderly relate physical activity mainly to things that are necessary and less to health. Doing things for other people and being together makes activities meaningful and worthy to do. Another cause for passiveness is their social situation. People often have lost their partner and need to find new contacts to do recreational things with. Finding these contacts is difficult, especially in an elderly home where there is a lot of struggle and irritation.
How the problem of passiveness is solved is described in a vision. The main theme of the vision is; “Go out and meet the world.” Research showed that people enjoy being among people and watch the world pass by. It gives them a feeling of belonging and worthiness. I want people to discover the world around them together with neighbors or friends. The design is a door to the outer world and offers the possibility for social contact. Besides that it aims to make people aware of what they still do, not focus on making them do new, strange, activities. At last it is important that people can use their personal creativity and initiative. This makes activities valuable and enjoyable.
Ideas were generated, and several concept directions were tested. The insights gained through testing and trying lead to the final design; Pearls in North.
Pearls in North is a service that stimulates the new people in Humanitas to discover places in their neighborhood. Because of personal invitations from spots in the neighborhood people are stimulated to go out and visit those places. The spots are small businesses in the neighborhood; it can be a café, a restaurant, a shop, an ice cream shop, a bakery or a cultural place. Because the invitation offers a discount for two people, they are stimulated to go with somebody else, for instance a neighbor or a friend. Every month there is a different activity in another spot; that spot is called The Pearl of the Month. Over a year people are introduced to twelve Pearls in their neighborhood and the threshold to go there again will be smaller. This results in more movement outside Humanitas because people feel safe and know what to expect. When people visit the Pearl of the Month there is the possibility to write a review and make a picture with it. This review will be send to Humanitas and will be hanged on the central display in the atrium. These reviews are fun to read and can inspire other people to visit the Pearl of the Month as well.
The service was tested to see if the interactions that were foreseen really work as expected. The tests show that the general concept functions very well and is promising for future implementation. The entrepreneurs are willing to join, other customers of the Pearl of the Month are enthusiastic users of the camera and reviews and elderly people start talking about their experiences and inspire other people because of their enthusiasm. The social aspect of inviting another individual; a neighbor or a friend is more difficult than expected. Improvements should be made to make it easier for people to invite one another. Recommendations are made to improve the design and a plan is given to implement this service in the context.
